CONSTRUCTING THE COLLEGE-ATTENDANCE VALUE SCALE

Objective: The objective of the study is to construct College-Attendance Value Scale (CAVS) for undergraduates in a national university in Taiwan by Eccles (2009) identity-based approach to her expectancy-value theory. Methods: Participants were sophomores (N = 729, 39.72% females, M age= 20.44 years) who voluntarily responded to an online school-wide survey; they were randomly grouped into calibration and validation samples. Data analyses included CAVS (7 items), Achievement-Goal Questionnaire (12 items), University Core Competence Scale of two subscales tailored to the university-featured competence (8 items for professionalcompetence subscale; 6 items for interpersonal-competence subscale), and Personal Development Scale (9 items from College Student Experience Questionnaire detailing development in self, personality, and career plans). Results: First, construct validity evidence was established by results of exploratory factor analysis on the calibration sample (n = 364) for identification of two factors (i.e., Personal Value, PV; Collective Value, CV), and by results of confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) on the validation sample (n= 365) for an acceptable twofactor model. In CFA, convergent and discriminant validity evidence supported the distinction of the two factors. Second, criterion-related validity evidence was substantiated from a good-fit path model. PV predicted mastery-approach, mastery-avoidance, and performance-approach goals; CV predicted performance-avoidance and performance-approach goals. Mastery-avoidance and performance-approach goals predicted professionalcompetence and interpersonal-competence. Professional-competence and interpersonal-competence predicted personal development. PV directly predicted professional-competence, interpersonal-competence, and personal development, respectively. Furthermore, a few indirect effects were found: effects from PV and CV respectively to personal development via achievement-goals and then core-competence; effects from PV and CV respectively to core-competence via achievement-goals. PV showed larger indirect effects than CV. Findings suggest that CAVS is an effective measure in explaining Taiwanese undergraduates` achievement-goals, core-competence, and personal development. Thus, university can better learn what largely drives undergraduates to develop their competence and personality, subsequently acting to promote well-being of undergraduates throughout their studies.